1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a backlight assembly and a display apparatus having the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a backlight assembly capable of reducing overall device thickness and improving brightness uniformity, and a display apparatus having the backlight assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a liquid crystal display (LCD) is a display apparatus that uses optical characteristics of liquid crystal cells to display images. Since LCD is a non-emissive device, it displays an image by receiving light from a backlight assembly provided behind a rear surface of a liquid crystal display panel.
The backlight assembly is classified into a direct-illumination type backlight assembly and an edge-illumination type backlight assembly according to the position of the light source. The direct-illumination type backlight assembly directly irradiates the whole surface of the liquid crystal display panel by using a light source positioned behind the liquid crystal display panel. The direct-illumination type backlight assembly typically includes a plurality of light sources to ensure higher brightness as compared with that of the edge-illumination type backlight assembly.
The direct-illumination type backlight assembly includes one or more lamps emitting light, and a diffusion plate provided in front of the lamps to diffuse the light emitted from the lamps. One disadvantage of the direct-illumination type backlight assembly is that its light has non-uniform brightness distribution. In other words, the area of the backlight assembly that is close to (e.g., overlaps) the lamp is brighter than the area of the backlight assembly that is not as close to the lamp (e.g., between two adjacent lamps). Such non-uniform brightness distribution degrades brightness uniformity of light from the direct-illumination type backlight assembly.